Current, Former Big Law Partners Pushed for Judgeships

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) is recommending a Day Pitney partner and a former Cravath, Swaine & Moore partner for vacancies on the busy federal bench in Manhattan.

Katherine Forrest was at Cravath for 20 years before leaving in October to join the U.S. Justice Department, according to Schumer’s office. She’s a deputy assistant attorney general in the antitrust division, which was also her focus in private practice. Before leaving Cravath, she was on the firm’s team representing United Airlines parent UAL Corp. in its merger with Continental Airlines Inc., and she helped to represent Time Warner Inc. in its war against file-sharing of copyrighted music and other work.

Edgardo Ramos works in Day Pitney’s white-collar defense and investigations practice and its antitrust practice, according to his firm profile. He’s a former prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, and in 2009, Connecticut’s two Democratic senators recommended him as one of four finalists for U.S. attorney for Connecticut.

Schumer is sending their names to President Barack Obama for possible nomination to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Obama can nominate whomever he likes, though senators often get their choices for district judges.

In a news release, Schumer called the two “first-rate lawyers who have served at the highest levels of public and private practice.” He added, “Both have the commitment to public service and top-flight legal skills that we want in our federal judges, and I’m proud to recommend them for the bench.”

There are seven vacancies in the Southern District of New York, and the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts considers one vacancy to be a judicial emergency because it has been open for longer than 18 months. Obama has two pending nominees for the court, J. Paul Oetken, an associate general counsel at Cablevision Systems Corp., and Vincent Briccetti of Briccetti, Calhoun & Lawrence in White Plains, N.Y.

Updated Feb. 1 to clarify the judicial emergency

Comments

[Rick]

Yeah, President Obama can nominate anyone he wants, but republicans block everyone anyway...Sometimes i almost wish for a republican president again just so democrats can do to them what they are doing to democrats now (on the judicial nomination front)..

It's is a travesty of epic proportions that highly qualifed and moderate nominees like Louis Butler, Edward Chen, and Goodwin Liu cannot get an up/down vote...I seem to recall many far right judges nominated by W got their vote...Such nominees included, but are not limited to Janice Brown, William Pryor, Priscilla Owen...